The Edge of Never - by J.A. Redmerski excerpt

Excerpt

I pull my hand from his and grasp the fabric above my boobs and pull the top up a little so that it feels better in place.

“I love you in that,” he says, “but you have to admit, it’s a distraction for douchebags.”

“Well, I don’t want to walk all the way back to the hotel just to change my top.”

“No, you don’t have to do that,” he says, reaching for my hand again. “But if you want to go to another club, you’re gonna have to do something for me, alright?”

“What?”

“Just pretend you’re my girlfriend,” he says and a little smile spreads across my lips. “At least that way no one will fuck with you, or they’re less likely to try, anyway.”

He pauses and looks at me and says, “Unless you want guys to hit on you?”

It takes no time at all for my head to start shaking. “No. I do not want any guys to hit on me. Innocent flirting, fine—it does wonders for my confidence—but not douchebags.”

“Good, then it’s settled. You’re my sexy girlfriend for the night, which means I get to take you back to the room later and make you squeal a little.” There’s that boyish grin of his again that I love so much.

I’m tingling between the legs now. I swallow hard and play it off by playfully narrowing my eyes at him.

I’m just glad to see his dimples again, as opposed to that wrathful—although incredibly sexy, still—expression that consumed his features moments ago.

“As much as I like it—well, ‘like’ is really putting it lightly—I’m not going to let you do that anymore.”

He looks hurt and a little shocked. “Why not?”

“Because, Andrew, I…well, I just won’t let you—now come here.” I cup my hands around the sides of his neck and pull him toward me.

And then I kiss him softly, letting my lips linger on his afterwards.

“What are you doing?” he says, staring down into my eyes.

I smile sweetly up at him. “I’m getting into character.”

A grin tugs the corners of his lips. He turns me around and locks his arm around my waist as we head toward Bourbon Street.

Bared to You - Sylvia Day

excerpt 

This excerpt contains adult material and is intended for readers 18 years of age or older.

Stepping out from under the modern glass entrance overhang that somehow meshed with the age of the building and its neighbors, I enjoyed the relative quiet of my tree-lined street before I reached the bustle and flow of traffic on Broadway. One day soon, I hoped to blend right in, but for now I still felt like a fraudulent New Yorker. I had the address and the job, but I was still wary of the subway and had trouble hailing cabs. I tried not to walk around wide-eyed and distracted, but it was hard. There was just so much to see and experience.

The sensory input was astonishing—the smell of vehicle exhaust mixed with food from vendor carts, the shouts of hawkers blended with music from street entertainers, the awe-inspiring range of faces and styles and accents, the gorgeous architectural wonders . . . And the cars. Jesus Christ. The frenetic flow of tightly packed cars was unlike anything I’d ever seen anywhere.

There was always an ambulance, patrol car, or fire engine trying to part the flood of yellow taxis with the electronic wail of earsplitting sirens. I was in awe of the lumbering garbage trucks that navigated tiny one-way streets and the package delivery drivers who braved the bumper-to-bumper traffic while facing rigid deadlines.

Real New Yorkers cruised right through it all, their love for the city as comfortable and familiar as a favorite pair of shoes. They didn’t view the steam billowing from potholes and vents in the sidewalks with romantic delight. They didn’t blink an eye when the ground vibrated beneath their feet as the subway roared by below, while I grinned like an idiot and flexed my toes. New York was a brand-new love affair for me. I was starry-eyed and it showed.

So I had to really work at playing it cool as I made my way over to the building where I would be working. As far as my job went, at least, I’d gotten my way. I wanted to make a living by my own merits and that meant an entry-level position. Starting the next morning, I would be the assistant to Mark Garrity at Waters Field & Leaman, one of the preeminent advertising agencies in the United States. My stepfather, megafinancier Richard Stanton, had been annoyed when I took the job, pointing out that if I’d been less prideful I could’ve worked for a friend of his instead and reaped the benefits of that connection.

“You’re as stubborn as your father,” he’d said. “It’ll take him forever to pay off your student loans on a cop’s salary.”

That had been a major fight, with my dad unwilling to back down. “Hell if another man’s gonna pay for my daughter’s education,” Victor Reyes had said when Stanton made the offer. I respected that. I suspected Stanton did, too, although he would never admit it. I understood both men’s sides, because I’d fought to pay off the loans myself . . . and lost. It was a point of pride for my father. My mother had refused to marry him, but he’d never wavered from his determination to be my dad in every way possible.

Knowing it was pointless to get riled up over old frustrations, I focused on getting to work as quickly as possible. I’d deliberately chosen to clock the short trip during a busy time on a Monday, so I was pleased when I reached the Crossfire Building, which housed Waters Field & Leaman, in less than thirty minutes.

I tipped my head back and followed the line of the building all the way up to the slender ribbon of sky. The Crossfire was seriously impressive, a sleek spire of gleaming sapphire that pierced the clouds. I knew from my previous interviews that the interior on the other side of the ornate copper-framed revolving doors was just as awe-inspiring, with golden-veined marble floors and walls and brushed-aluminum security desk and turnstiles.

As I entered the building, I pulled my new ID card out of the inner pocket of my pants and held it up for the two guards in black business suits at the desk. They stopped me anyway, no doubt because I was majorly underdressed, but then they cleared me through. After I completed an elevator ride up to the twentieth floor, I’d have general time frame for the whole route from door to door. Score.

I was walking toward the bank of elevators when a svelte, beautifully groomed brunette caught her purse on a turnstile and upended it, spilling a deluge of change. Coins rained onto the marble and rolled merrily away, and I watched people dodge the chaos and keep going as if they didn’t see it. I winced in sympathy and crouched to help the woman collect her money, as did one of the guards.

“Thank you,” she said, shooting me a quick, harried smile.

I smiled back. “No problem. I’ve been there.”

I’d just squatted to reach a nickel lying near the entrance when I ran into a pair of luxurious black oxfords draped in tailored black slacks. I waited a beat for the man to move out of my way and when he didn’t, I arched my neck back to allow my line of sight to rise. The custom three-piece suit hit more than a few of my hot buttons, but it was the tall, powerfully lean body inside it that made it sensational. Still, as impressive as all that magnificent maleness was, it wasn’t until I reached the man’s face that I went down for the count.

Wow. Just . . . wow.

He sank into an elegant crouch directly in front of me. Hit with all that exquisite masculinity at eye level, I could only stare. Stunned.

Then something shifted in the air between us.

As he stared back, he altered . . . as if a shield slid away from his eyes, revealing a scorching force of will that sucked the air from my lungs. The intense magnetism he exuded grew in strength, becoming a near-tangible impression of vibrant and unrelenting power.

Reacting purely on instinct, I shifted backward. And sprawled flat on my ass.

My elbows throbbed from the violent contact with the marble floor, but I scarcely registered the pain. I was too preoccupied with staring, riveted by the man in front of me. Inky black hair framed a breathtaking face. His bone structure would make a sculptor weep with joy, while a firmly etched mouth, a blade of a nose, and intensely blue eyes made him savagely gorgeous. Those eyes narrowed slightly, his features otherwise schooled into impassivity.

His dress shirt and suit were both black, but his tie perfectly matched those brilliant irises. His eyes were shrewd and assessing, and they bored into me. My heartbeat quickened; my lips parted to accommodate faster breaths. He smelled sinfully good. Not cologne. Body wash, maybe. Or shampoo. Whatever it was, it was mouthwatering, as was he.

He held out a hand to me, exposing onyx cuff links and a very expensive-looking watch.

With a shaky inhalation, I placed my hand in his. My pulse leaped when his grip tightened. His touch was electric, sending a shock up my arm that raised the hairs on my nape. He didn’t move for a moment, a frown line marring the space between arrogantly slashed brows.

“Are you all right?”

His voice was cultured and smooth, with a rasp that made my stomach flutter. It brought sex to mind. Extraordinary sex. I thought for a moment that he might be able to make me orgasm just by talking long enough.

My lips were dry, so I licked them before answering. “I’m fine.”

He stood with economical grace, pulling me up with him. We maintained eye contact because I was unable to look away. He was younger than I’d assumed at first. Younger than thirty would be my guess, but his eyes were much worldlier. Hard and sharply intelligent.

I felt drawn to him, as if a rope bound my waist and he were slowly, inexorably pulling it.

Blinking out of my semidaze, I released him. He wasn’t just beautiful; he was . . . enthralling. He was the kind of guy that made a woman want to rip his shirt open and watch the buttons scatter along with her inhibitions. I looked at him in his civilized, urbane, outrageously expensive suit and thought of raw, primal, sheet-clawing fucking.

He bent down and retrieved the ID card I hadn’t realized I’d dropped, freeing me from that provocative gaze. My brain stuttered back into gear.

I was irritated with myself for feeling so awkward while he was so completely self-possessed. And why? Because I was dazzled, damn it.

He glanced up at me and the pose—him nearly kneeling before me—skewed my equilibrium again. He held my gaze as he rose. “Are you sure you’re all right? You should sit down for a minute.”

My face heated. How lovely to appear awkward and clumsy in front of the most self-assured and graceful man I’d ever met. “I just lost my balance. I’m okay.”

Looking away, I caught sight of the woman who’d dumped the contents of her purse. She thanked the guard who’d helped her; then turned to approach me, apologizing profusely. I faced her and held out the handful of coins I’d collected, but her gaze snagged on the god in the suit and she promptly forgot me altogether. After a beat, I just reached over and dumped the change into the woman’s bag. Then I risked a glance at the man again, finding him watching me even as the brunette gushed thank-yous. To him. Not to me, of course, the one who’d actually helped.

I talked over her. “May I have my badge, please?”

He offered it back to me. Although I made an effort to retrieve it without touching him, his fingers brushed mine, sending that charge of awareness into me all over again.

“Thank you,” I muttered before skirting him and pushing out to the street through the revolving door. I paused on the sidewalk, gulping in a breath of New York air redolent with a million different things, some good and some toxic.

There was a sleek black Bentley SUV in front of the building and I saw my reflection in the limo’s spotless tinted windows. I was flushed and my gray eyes were overly bright. I’d seen that look on my face before—in the bathroom mirror just before I went to bed with a man. It was my I’m-ready-to-fuck look and it had absolutely no business being on my face now.
 

Copyright © 2012 by Sylvia Day (www.sylviaday.com)

Excerpted from Bared to You - Sylvia Day. Reprinted from author’s website www.sylviaday.com

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Sophie & Carter - Chelsea Fine excerpt

excerpt

CHAPTER ONE: SOPHIE

I’m late for English.

This is not uncommon. I have a tendency to doddle at lunch. ‘Doddle’ is a word my mom would use when she wanted to call me lazy. I never use it out loud, but I use it a lot in my head.

So, I’m late.

I’m running through the halls (well, let’s be honest here, I’m not running. I’m walking. Casually. English doesn’t excite me, so I refuse to break a sweat to get there) thinking about what my excuse for being tardy will be, and I see him.

Carter Jax.

He makes my heart stop, he makes my breaths shallow, he makes me want to sing.

I know, super corny, right? But, agh, it’s true.

He’s not the most popular guy in school. He’s not the hottest guy to ever live. But to me, he’s everything.  I’m somewhat disgusted at myself for thinking such dramatic, girlie thoughts. But I can’t help myself. He rocks my world.

You know how parents always say things like, “If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you jump too?”

Well, if Carter jumped off a cliff, I wouldn’t just jump off after him. I’d throw myself over the ledge and dive toward the earth below so I could catch up with him and hold his hand while we plummeted to our deaths.

Yeah. I’m that much of a sicko.

So anyway, Carter’s in the hallway, looking at me with his quirky smile and an eyebrow raised. He’s wearing his faded jeans and blue t-shirt like he just stepped out of a magazine ad. And he easily could have.

Broad shoulders, square jaw, piercing gray eyes…everything about his appearance is picture-perfect.

Everything except the scars.

I feel my heart squeeze in my chest and immediately redirect my thoughts to happier things.

Like root canals.

We walk toward one another slowly. It’s just the two of us, no other students around, which is rare. We don’t typically run into one another during school, at least not when we’re alone. And that’s how we like it.

At school, we pretend we don’t know each other. It’s a silent understanding we’ve had for years. It keeps our school lives separate from our home lives and keeps us from going crazy.

School is our escape.

As we near each other I absently inhale, welcoming the familiar scent of Carter’s soap. It smells like the ocean.

I’ve never been to the ocean, let alone breathed it in, but in my mind the ocean smells like Carter. Therefore, I love the ocean.

“Late again?” Carter smiles. “What’s your excuse today, Sophie?”

I love it when he says my name.

He knows me well, so he knows I’m always late for English.

“I’m thinking about blaming a faulty toilet in the girls’ room.” I say, as I tuck my hair behind my ear. I sound normal because I’m good at acting normal around Carter.

He smiles.

I melt.

The conversation goes on. “I wish I was in your English class. I’d love to watch your teacher lecture you on punctuality day after day..,” he rolls his eyes, “…after day. Poor guy.”

I smile back, because any other response (like jumping into his arms and kissing him) would be stupid. “Yeah, well, AP English is for us smarties. Aren’t you supposed to be in class right now too? Like, maybe Womanizing 101?”

Carter’s not the most popular guy in school, but he’s got some serious swagger.

I hate this about him.

I also love this about him.

“Ah, you know I don’t need any classes on women. I’ve got them all figured out.” He gives a cocky smile and I narrow my eyes at him, twitching my lips so I don’t smile.

He’s not cocky at all, but like I said, we pretend at school. We’re completely different kids at school. We’re normal kids.

“Really? Figured out all the anatomical differences between our genders finally?” I tease him because he lets me.

“Ah, you know very well I figured all that out years ago.”

No, actually, I don’t ‘know very well’. But I have ears and my ears know very well.

“Women,” he begins, puffing out his chest and speaking with authority, “are simple. Just compliment them all the time and they’ll think you’re awesome.”

This, I know for a fact, is not true. Because Carter has never complimented me. And I think he’s awesome.

I’m stupid. I don’t care.

“And men,” I counter, stepping closer because when we’re at school he always shifts uncomfortably when I’m near, “are weak. Because all we have to do is pout our lips and bat our eyes and they’ll do anything we say.” I bat my eyelashes a few times and hold my gaze steady as he tries not to change his expression. I know him so well.

“Careful, Sophie.” His voice is so low I can feel it brushing my waist. “Keep saying things like that and I’m not going to believe you’re as innocent as you look.”

He knows all about me, so his words are empty.

We stare at each other without moving. Our breaths are silent and I’m sure my heartbeat is echoing up and down the hallway. I don’t want to break our gaze, so I don’t give in. Neither does Carter, which is fine with me. I’d gladly stay locked in his gaze until I died of starvation.

See? Sicko.

These rare encounters at school, when no one is around, let us act like every other high school senior. Flirting, loitering in the hallway, breathing in each other’s pulse…just like normal teenagers.

But in real life, I never feel like a teenager, which is why I wish moments like these would never end.

A defeated sigh tumbles down the hallway in our direction. “Can’t you kids get to class on time like all the other students?” It’s our principal, Mr. Westley. He sounds weary, but we know he’s not mad. He’s all talk.

“No.” We both say at the same time as we turn our attention to him. We don’t look at one another. Saying things at the same time is nothing new to us.

Mr. Westley sighs and shakes his head. “Right. Okay, then. Get to class.” He walks away without looking back to make sure we’re headed to class. But our

moment is over, so we’re parting.

“See you later?” Carter asks.

It’s the hitch in his voice, the hopefulness I hear, that breaks my heart and completes me at the same time. I wink, because it’s not weird for me to wink at him.

“Of course.” I say. Because I’m a sure thing.

We’ve never had sex.

Or made out.

Or even kissed.

But when it comes to me being there for him and blindly holding my heart out to him, then I’m a sure thing.

And he knows it.

And he’s careful with it.

And that’s why Carter Jax is my best friend.

CHAPTER TWO: CARTER

Sophie and I don’t walk home from school together. We never have. But we live next door to one another on Penrose Street.

Right next door.

Sophie usually walks twenty feet ahead of me on our way home. I’m used to this and it feels comfortable. On days when Sophie stays home sick or…whatever, it feels wrong. I walk home alone and I can never seem to get there fast enough.

Today she’s here, though, walking in front of me. Not acknowledging me, which is our unspoken understanding. We act like we don’t know each other around our friends.

It keeps things simple. It keeps reality out.

I shove my hands in my pockets; my eyes falling on the familiar cracks in the sidewalk beneath me. The wind carries scents of the neighborhood up to my nose as I walk. Dirt…rubber…grass… even a little garbage, meet my nostrils, reminding me of home.

We don’t live in the nicest part of town, but it could be worse.

The houses are small and crooked, but the trees are large and stand up tall. Large oaks stretch their canopies over the leaky roofs and peeling paint of the homes below, keeping the secrets in and the sunlight out.

Not that sunlight would help any.

I bring my head up and survey the street. A long time ago the neighborhood was probably pretty nice…back before the pavement cracked and lifted, and the streetlights hung at dangerous angles. I’m sure there was a time when Penrose Street was probably an ideal place to walk your dog or have a barbeque.

Not anymore, though.

The only dogs in the neighborhood are strays, and barbeques are something I’ve only seen on TV.

A breeze floats through the air, softly lifting Sophie’s hair from her shoulders. I catch a glimpse of her profile as her hair rises and smile to myself.

Sophie has no idea how attractive she is. At school she walks around guarded, paying little attention to the teenage Neanderthals vying for her attention. Kids don’t understand why she’s so quiet and uninterested. They don’t know anything about her.

But I do.

A leaf falls from one of the tall oaks and brushes against Sophie’s arm before falling to the ground. My eyes stay on her as we near our houses.

I like to watch her walk—and not in a sexual way. Don’t get me wrong, she’s got a nice butt. Actually, she’s got nice…everything.

But there’s something about how she walks…how she holds herself high, keeps her head straight and knows where she’s going. It’s beautiful.

I’ve been watching her walk home twenty feet ahead of me since the third grade. That’s when she moved in next door. We were nine, my life was hell, and she was new.

She was also the reason I went to school. Or got up in the morning. Or kept breathing.

The promise of Sophie.

She drops a piece of paper on the ground without stopping. It’s for me. It’s how we ‘talk’ on our walk home.

I keep my pace steady, even though I want to race to where the paper scrap fell and retrieve it like a possessive hound.

My feet finally reach where her note landed and I bend to pick it up, barely slowing my momentum.

I open the small folded note. It’s covered in smiley faces. Of course.

Stop staring at my butt.

I smile.

Like I said, she’s got a great butt. But right now I’m not staring at it.

She knows I’m not staring at it.

No. I’m staring at her skinny fingers, wrapped like magnets around the strap of her book bag. Her knuckles are white and her forearm is flexed.

She’s tense.

We’re almost home. This is the worst part of the day—for both of us.

I shove her note in my pocket and take a deep breath. We’re each at our driveways now. Sophie doesn’t look over at me or say goodbye. I don’t wave or look at her either.

Because this is the beginning of the end of our day. This is when things go wrong.

This is why she dropped me a note.

Because she knows, and I know, that we both need a little levity before we walk into our homes after school.

Homes.

They’re not really homes. More like houses where we sleep. Where we eat—if we’re lucky. Where we cry and fight. Where we bleed and break. Where we cower and scream.

Where we give up. Where we sigh. Where we barely survive.

I know this because our houses are only twenty feet apart. Her bedroom window faces mine. Her kitchen window faces mine. We see everything that happens to each other.

It’s terrible, intrusive and embarrassing.

It’s also the reason Sophie Hartman is my best friend.

Excerpted from Sophie & Carter - Chelsea Fine. Reprinted from author’s blog http://chelseafine.blogspot.com

The Boyfriend Thief - Shana Norris excerpt

excerpt

Chapter 1

If there was one thing I hated more than anything else in this world, it was Giant Hot Dog Day. The late April sun beat down on me, heat radiating from the sizzling sidewalk as I stood outside Diggity Dog House in a big red hot dog costume complete with two zigzags of mustard and ketchup snaking up my stomach and enclosed in a fluffy pillow of bun.
The costume always smelled suspiciously like sweaty, fungus-infected feet, and the current heat wave settled over Willowbrook made it much worse. I tried to breathe through my mouth as much as possible when inside the hot dog to spare my nose from the fumes. Seeing anything through the screen mesh over the small hole in front of my face was nearly impossible. The only good thing about this was that anyone standing outside the costume was unable to see who was inside, so at least the cheerleaders I vaguely recognized as sophomores from my school didn’t know who exactly it was they laughed at. I gave them my best wave with my puffy white gloved hand as they passed into the diner, causing them to giggle even harder.
I really, really hated Giant Hot Dog Day.
“Look, Bailey,” a woman said, clutching the hand of a boy who didn’t look more than three. She pointed at me and grinned down at him. “It’s Bob the hot dog!”
The kids of Willowbrook loved the giant hot dog. When you were forced to live far away from Disney World or Six Flags or any place that might have cute and cuddly mascots walking around, a giant hot dog worked to fill the void.
“Hot dog!” the boy cried, giving me a drooly grin.
I patted him on the head and turned around to continue my mascot duties.
But the little boy wasn’t done with me yet. “Dance!”
Oh, no. Not happening, kid. I’d wear the costume, but there was no way I would do the Hot Diggity Shuffle. Not on the corner of Hawkins and Main Streets in one hundred degree heat for everyone in town to see.
“Dance!”
I raised the roof with my arms a bit, hoping that might appease him. I attempted some telepathy with his mom. You’re starving for a Diggity Dog Loaded Special, I sent the silent message her way. Go inside the restaurant and leave me to my misery in peace.
Apparently telepathy wasn’t my strong suit. The mom and the boy remained where they stood on the sidewalk in front of me.
“Dance! Dance! Dance!” the boy ordered, stamping his feet.
That kid could really screech for someone barely three feet tall. If he kept this up, my manager Mr. Throckmorton would come outside to see what was going on and then I’d get written up for not doing the shuffle. Again. I was on dangerous territory already because I had received two strikes against me in the last month. One for sneaking a milkshake to my best friend Molly five minutes after ten and the second for forgetting my hot dog hat at home on a day I was supposed to run the register.
There were only three Unbreakable Rules at Diggity Dog House:
Number 1: Closing time was at exactly ten o’clock. Not one minute after. Ten on the dot.
Number 2: All counter attendants must wear the hat featuring a big plastic hot dog across the forehead at all times during their shift.
Number 3: Bob the Hot Dog has to do the Hot Diggity Shuffle whenever asked.
“Okay, okay,” I growled. The shuffle was this stupid dance Mr. Throckmorton made up involving a kind of tap dance move—step, step, shuffle, step, shuffle, repeat—while swinging your arms from side to side. And then for the finale, you jumped around and shook your bun at your audience.
Totally humiliating.
But the little boy loved it. He grinned wide and clapped his pudgy hands.
Just as I jumped around to shake my bun to the little boy’s screeching laughter, a voice shouted, “Look out! Runaway shopping cart coming through!”
Being encased in a bun of foam made sudden movements impossible. I managed to see a blur of blue and gray before something slammed into my hip, sending me flying backward. I landed flat on my back on the sidewalk.
Getting up in giant foam hot dog was also impossible. I flailed back and forth, trying to work up enough momentum to flip myself over.
This must be what it felt like to be a turtle.
Someone grabbed my arm and pulled me into a sitting position. “Are you okay?” a vaguely familiar voice asked.
I opened my mouth to say I was fine—foam hot dog was surprisingly good for pillowing a fall—but another, much more familiar voice stopped me.
“I told you to leave the shopping cart alone,” Hannah Cohen snapped.
Her boyfriend, Zac Greeley, knelt in front of me, holding my puffy gloved hands in his as he tried to help me up. A rusty shopping cart lay on its side next to us, one wheel still spinning.
Zac and I only vaguely knew each other from school. I didn’t know what he and Hannah could possibly have in common. While Zac’s wrinkled clothes and eternal cowlick in the back of his hair indicated that he apparently rolled out of bed and threw on the first thing he grabbed from the floor, Hannah always looked neat and put together. She was president of the junior class student council (I was vice president), vice president of math club (I was president), and the girl who was currently tied with me for highest GPA in our class. In other words, Hannah was my official arch nemesis.
She was also once my best friend, a lifetime ago.
They didn’t know it was me inside the giant hot dog. Thankfully, the costume included foam legs and feet in addition to foam arms and gloves, so I was completely covered and they couldn’t see the embarrassed flush creeping up my neck at this fiasco.
“Sorry, sorry!” Zac pulled me to my feet, grabbing hold of my arms when I stumbled a bit as I tried to catch my footing. “Next time I’ll remember to figure out how to steer before I decide to ride a shopping cart down the sidewalk.”
He grinned, looking like an impish little boy. From what I knew of Zac, riding a shopping cart down the street was only one of many things he’d done, or was rumored to have done. I still wasn’t sure I believed the rumor that he’d danced an Irish jig in nothing but green boxers in the cafeteria on St. Patrick’s Day.
Again, what did he and Hannah have in common?
There was no way I would speak and let Hannah hear my voice, so I gave him a thumbs up. Or at least, as close to a thumbs up as was possible with the huge glove engulfing my hand.
Hannah waited by the door, her arms crossed over her chest. “Can we go get your hot dog now, before the weekend is over?” Back when Hannah and I were friends, she was silly and fun. These days, as we got closer and closer to our senior year, all anyone ever saw of her was the stressed out, serious overachiever who was determined to knock me down to salutatorian.
I knew a lot of people probably said the same thing about me. But my case was different. One day I had a mom. The next I didn’t. My mom’s disappearing act when I was twelve changed everything. And from that point on, everything that didn’t put me closer to my goal didn’t matter. I had to succeed, to make things better for my dad and brother and me.
Hannah, really, had no excuse, other than the fact that she was a liar who sneaked around behind her best friend’s back and then abandoned that so-called best friend when things didn’t go her way.
Luckily, she couldn’t see the face I made through my costume as they headed into the restaurant.
Two hours later, I was on a break from mascot duties, seated in the very back corner of the kitchen. The hot dog body laid crumpled on the floor beside me as Elliott Reiser and Tara Watkins worked nearby. They were on hot dog duty today—as in, making them, not wearing them—and they stood awfully close to each other at the counter. Since Elliott had started working at Diggity Dog House three weeks ago, he and Tara had become cozier and cozier with each other.
I absolutely despised Elliott Reiser, but he and my best friend Molly Pinski had this thing going on between them. Not quite dating yet, but definitely headed in that direction.
Elliott had swept Molly off her feet when they both reached for the same computer game at Valu-Mart. Leave it to Elliott to cast his charms on an innocent girl like Molly when I wasn’t around to make her see reality.
And the reality was, Elliott was a jerk. Plain and simple. Maybe once he had been a pretty decent guy, but now he always had some obnoxious comment to make, thinking he was funny. Who knew what went on between him and Tara when no one was around. I had tried to tell Molly this, but she always said Elliott was friendly and outgoing and she didn’t care if he talked to girls.
It wasn’t like I’d actually seen Elliott do anything with Tara other than talk, as Molly constantly reminded me. But they talked a lot. More than he talked to anyone else. From what I’d seen of the secrets and lies within the halls of Willowbrook High, guys and girls could not be “just friends.” There was always something going on behind the scenes.
I cleared my throat a little too loud and Elliott and Tara both looked my way.
“Well, if it isn’t Avery James, resident hot dog,” Elliott said, giving me that stupid grin of his. “Doing all right over there?”
“Fine,” I said. “And you?” I looked pointedly at him, then Tara, and then him again.
“Great.” Elliott grinned wider and then went back to preparing hot dogs.
The Diggity Dog House office door opened and Mr. Throckmorton appeared, looking disheveled as always. Every day, he arrived at the diner before noon looking nicely pressed. But within a couple of hours his hair stuck out all over his head and his clothes were stained and wrinkled. Apparently, running a hot dog diner was incredibly stressful.
“James!” he barked when he saw me. “Am I paying you to sit around?”
“I’m on a break,” I said.
“That’s no excuse. Get outside when your break is over.”
I saluted him. “Yes, sir!”
“And don’t get sassy with me,” Mr. Throckmorton said before marching toward the door leading to the counter area.
According to Mr. Throckmorton, no matter what I said, I was “getting sassy” with him. I was beginning to think he had a predisposed prejudice against sixteen-year-old girls with red hair. Or maybe just sixteen-year-old girls with red hair who always grumbled about having to shuffle and wear hot dogs across their foreheads.
“Better get back out there, Avery,” Elliott told me. “Your boyfriend is waiting.” He nodded toward the crumpled costume on the floor.
Tara apparently found his stupid joke hilarious.
Think about the money, I reminded myself. One thousand sixty-four dollars and thirteen cents and six weeks left to go.
If it weren’t for the money, I would never put up with this job and Elliott. But unfortunately, Diggity Dog House, in addition to being the most embarrassing place to work, was also the best paying in town. Mr. Throckmorton basically had to pay us a little more than the other restaurants to get employees willing to make idiots of themselves on a daily basis.
So I publicly humiliated myself once again. The next couple of hours outside passed slowly, and then once the sun had set, I came inside to wander around the dining room and greet people while they ate. Frankly, I’d be a little annoyed by a six-foot wiener interrupting me while I ate my dinner, but the customers at Diggity Dog House loved Bob. They all grinned wide and waved me over to their tables. A little old woman whose head barely reached my armpit had her husband take a picture of her with me.
Finally, it was ten and the last customer had been literally pushed out the door by Mr. Throckmorton. He had a strict closing time policy because he liked to be at home in his pajamas and watching reruns of The Facts of Life at exactly eleven.
The foam hot dog peeled from my sweat soaked skin as I shook it off. I tried a different deodorant each week to see if anything was strong enough to stand up to Bob’s inner core, but so far no luck. At the end of the night I always smelled. It was like a science experiment: Which Brand of Deodorant Can Withstand the Giant Hot Dog? Normally, I loved science experiments, but this one was a little too much.
The money, I reminded myself again as I wiped my forehead with a wad of napkins. I needed the money.
I headed toward the kitchen, bumping the door open with my hip since my arms were full of crushed foam. Elliott and Tara were alone in the kitchen and they jumped back away from each other when I entered. Tara busied herself with wiping down the stove while Elliott gave me a smirk.
“Taking your boyfriend home for the night?” he asked me.
I narrowed my eyes as my gaze flicked between the two of them. Elliott looked unconcerned about anything, but I detected a slight red tinge to Tara’s cheeks. What exactly had I walked in on?
Molly never supported my theory that relationships were a waste of time. She had let her hormones take over her common sense. She didn’t even realize how much she needed me around to protect her.
“So,” I said as I returned Bob to the closet where he was stored, “you two seem very friendly these days.”
“I’m a friendly guy,” Elliott said.
I’d bet he was. “I’ll be sure to tell Molly how friendly you are. You remember Molly? The girl you follow around drooling over every day?”
My words didn’t have the effect I hoped for. Elliott smiled at me and reached for the broom to sweep the floor.
Okay, there may have been one thing I hated more than Giant Hot Dog Day: Elliott Reiser. Ever since that summer after seventh grade, I’d hated him almost as much as I hated my mom. But I couldn’t tell Molly about that incident unless I wanted her to drop me like last week’s shriveled hot dogs.
Somehow I had to make her see the light and get rid of his sorry butt.
“Everyone ready to go?” Mr. Throckmorton asked as he walked into the kitchen. He looked at his watch and clapped his hands together. “Come on, let’s get moving!”
I followed Mr. Throckmorton back to his office, trying to figure out the best way to ask for a raise. He jumped a little when he turned around.
“James, what did I tell you about sneaking up behind me?”
“Sorry, Mr. Throckmorton,” I said, twisting my hands together. My eyes darted around his office. Towers of boxes and paper leaned precariously throughout the room, mixed in among various signs, a few old takeout bags, and a couple of sweat-stained shirts tossed into one corner. My fingers itched to spend a few hours in there organizing everything, but Mr. Throckmorton would have a gigantic conniption fit if I moved even a paperclip out of place.
I stuffed my hands deep into my pockets to keep them from wandering toward the old tax records nearby. “I wanted to talk to you about a possible raise—”
Mr. Throckmorton held up one hand. “Stop right there. You know I can’t give you any more money. Your yearly evaluation isn’t until July.”
July would be too late. I didn’t plan to be stuck at Diggity Dog House for another summer come July.
“I know, but I thought maybe I could get an advanced raise?” I said, trying to sound as sweet as possible.
“It doesn’t work that way.” Mr. Throckmorton shuffled through some papers on his desk. He studied one for a moment, then tossed it toward a pile to his left. The paper flipped a few times through the air before fluttering to the floor. “It wouldn’t be fair to the other employees.”
I forced myself not to look at my boss’s inadequate filing system, trying to shut up the voice in my head that screamed, “FILE CABINET! For the love of argyle socks, use the freaking file cabinet!”
“Then could I get some more hours each week? I’ll do anything.”
He shook his head. “Sorry, James. I’m working you as many hours as I’m legally allowed already. I have nothing else to offer you.”
I suppressed a frustrated sigh and forced myself to smile. “Thanks anyway, Mr. Throckmorton,” I said as I turned to walk out of his office.
When I pulled my car to a stop in my driveway twenty minutes later, a light shone through a single window. The kitchen, exactly where I’d expected them to be. Dad and Ian always sneaked in a late night snack whenever I wasn’t home. Usually something greasy and extremely fattening.
I found my dad and younger brother trying to sweep the remains of chili cheese fries into the trash as I entered the room.
“Hi, sweetie,” Dad greeted me in an overly enthusiastic voice. “Have a good day at work?”
“Sure,” I said, raising an eyebrow at them. “Have a good day clogging your arteries?”
Dad’s mouth dropped open and he tried to look indignant. “I have no idea what you mean—”
Ian let out a loud, rumbling burp. “Excuse me.”
“Nice,” I told him as I sat down at the scratched wooden table. “Can’t you stifle your bodily functions until you get to your own room?”
“If it has to come out, it has to come out.” Ian was thirteen and still stuck in that phase in which he thought bodily noises were the most hilarious things in the world.
“Ian, stop tormenting your sister,” Dad said. “And, Avery, stop tormenting me. A little chili cheese won’t hurt us.”
“Remember that when your heart decides go into cardiac arrest,” I said.
“I can live with that.”
“If you keep eating so much junk, not likely.” Without me, Dad and Ian would eat cheeseburgers and pizza for every meal.
Dad wiped a spot of chili from his chin with a napkin. “I’m going to bed. I have a date with Trisha tomorrow after work, so I won’t be home until late.”
I rolled my eyes at the mention of Trisha. Ian and I still had yet to meet Dad’s latest girlfriend, though I knew it was only a matter of time before she showed up at our dinner table. Dad had this two-month rule: If the relationship lasted more than two months, then he’d bring her home to meet us. I thought the idea was brilliant. It had saved me from putting up with a few nameless women who hadn’t made it past a second date. But honestly, a two-year rule would have made me even happier.
Dad had now been dating Trisha for two months and one week.
“So there’s a lasagna in the freezer,” he continued. “And make sure Ian works on his history paper.”
“I don’t need a baby-sitter,” Ian grumbled.
“Yes, Dad,” I said. Sometimes it seemed as though Dad believed Ian and I were still little kids unable to take care of ourselves. Like we hadn’t been mostly caring for ourselves for four years now.
Dad leaned over and kissed the top of my head. “Okay, I can tell from your tone that you don’t need baby-sitting instructions from your old dad. Good night.”
Once Dad left, I grabbed a washcloth and wiped down the table and counters. I silently recited the names of the bones in my hands as I worked. Distal phalanges, intermediate phalanges, proximal phalanges, metacarpals, carpals. The words had a nice, soothing rhythm in my head as I put everything back in its place, making sure the bowls were stacked neatly and the spoons weren’t toppling over in the drawer. Returning everything to its rightful place, neat and organized, always made me feel calm and in control.
Under a pile of junk mail, I found one of the countless self-help books Dad always bought. The New You: Getting Over Disappointment and Heartache So You Can Find Happiness. I tossed the entire stack, junk mail and the book, into the trash.
“Try not to get into trouble tomorrow,” I told Ian as I turned toward him. “Just because Dad won’t be home doesn’t mean you can go wild. I can’t be called out of work again because you were caught sneaking into the movies.”
“Correction,” Ian said, “I was caught sneaking out, not in.”
“Only because you sneaked into the wrong movie in the first place. Next time I’m telling Dad.”
“You’re a traitor to the sibling oath,” Ian muttered.
I headed back to my room to get ready for bed. As I walked toward my closet, the brochures stacked on the corner of my dresser caught my eye.
“Spend the summer in Costa Rica!” the bold orange letters on the front proclaimed.
I’d read the brochures so many times they were coming apart at the folded edges. It wasn’t a vacation, it was a three week stay on the outskirts of San Juan, volunteering with doctors and humanitarian workers. It was very educational and would look great on my college applications, giving me a little head start on my future career in medicine. It was the experience of a lifetime.
It was also four thousand dollars.
I had over two thousand saved up, after working part time at Diggity Dog House for over a year and saving my birthday money from my grandparents. But I still had a long way to go and with only two months until the program started, I wasn’t feeling confident that I’d get to Costa Rica this summer.
But I had already paid the deposit to reserve my spot, which was non-refundable even if I didn’t manage to save up the rest of the money in time. It had to be this summer, before my senior year. Colleges would be looking at my applications and this trip would go a long way toward securing my acceptances.
The little voice in my head knew I was lying. I could have chosen a similar program much closer to home, but I’d picked this one specifically because it took place in Costa Rica. My eyes moved to the map tacked on the wall over my bed. There was a huge world out there, but the yellow thumbtacks marked only a few places: Belgium, Hong Kong, South Africa, Vancouver, and Costa Rica.
If I closed my eyes, sometimes I could picture her sitting on the edge of my bed, telling me stories about all these far off places she wanted to see. While Hannah Cohen’s designer-dressed mother dreamed of strolling past the Eiffel Tower or drifting down the waterways of Venice, my mom wanted to get lost in jungles, forests, and mountains. She wanted to hide from the whole world.
But I had never imagined she wanted to hide from us as well.
It had taken every ounce of bargaining ability I had to convince Dad to let me go to Costa Rica in the first place. The idea of sending me thousands of miles always still didn’t thrill him, but he had finally said I could—if I saved up the money to pay for the trip. Extra money wasn’t exactly something that my single-parent, one-income family had an excess of. Begging Mr. Throckmorton for another raise had been my last hope for extra money from my regular job.
I sighed as I tore my eyes away from the brochures and opened the closet to grab my pajamas from their place on the center shelf. I would make it to Costa Rica, no matter what it took. And I would search every bit of the country until I found the answers I was looking for.

Excerpted from The Boyfriend Thief - Shana Norris. Reprinted from author’s website www.shananorris.com

Black Ties and Lullabies - Jane Graves excerpt

excerpt

Chapter 1

Bernadette Hogan wished that when this night was over, she could tell Jeremy Bridges to go to hell. She was about ten times more emotionally stable than the average person, but if she had to spend one more evening watching him pick up vacuous blond women for fun and recreation, she was going to go insane. Yeah, he attended all these charity events as the philanthropic CEO of Sybersense Systems, but in the end it wasn't about generosity. It was about putting one more notch in his hand‑carved Louis XIV bedpost.
But it wasn't Bernie's job to plan a principal's itinerary. Her job was to protect him wherever he decided to go. And, of course, there was the small matter of the outrageous amount of money he paid her to put up with this nonsense, money she was going to need desperately in the coming years. So she kept that resignation letter only in her head, staring at it longingly with her mind's eye every time he aggravated her to the breaking point.
Tonight would be one of those times.
Carlos pulled the limo into the driveway of the San Moritz Hotel behind a string of unusually small and sedate vehicles. Tonight, it seemed, the filthy rich of Dallas society had left their Mercedes and Beemers and gas‑guzzling Hummers in their five-car garages, opting instead for their hybrids and electric cars.
Bernie sighed. "So which environmental cause are we championing this evening?"
Jeremy's brows drew together thoughtfully. "Hmm. Good question." He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out an invitation. "Ah. Global warming. Emphasis on diminishing polar bear habitats."
"And here you are in your limo. Last I checked, it gets about nine miles to the gallon. People are staring."
"People are hypocrites."
"True, but it's all about appearances."
"It's all about comfort," Jeremy said. "I didn't make all this money to cram myself into a car the size of a shoebox."
"You don't seem to mind cramming yourself inside your Ferrari."
"The Ferrari doesn't count. It's the only vehicle on earth that makes it worth giving up my wet bar and HDTV."
With that, he drained his Glenlivet and set the empty glass down with a contented sigh. There wasn't much that Jeremy denied himself in the way of creature comforts. He drank the best Scotch, lived in a gazillion-dollar house, traveled the world, and dated women who were knockout gorgeous with brains the size of golf balls. Nice to look at, Jeremy had told Bernie more than once, without all that pesky intelligence to get in the way of a good time.
Bernie sighed. With that one statement, he singlehandedly set feminism back fifty years.
There had been a time when total professionalism had dictated the way she dealt with Bridges. Yes, sir. No, sir. Very good, sir. But the longer she worked for him, the more she spoke her mind. Her attitude didn't mean she didn't take her job seriously. It just meant she had an outlet for the irritation she felt around him just about every minute of every day. Fortunately, because Jeremy was a bored rich guy who refused to play by the rules, a smart-ass bodyguard seemed to suit him just fine. Good thing, because if she had to hold her tongue around him, she'd probably end up killing him herself.
"Are you planning on tying that tie?" she asked him.
Jeremy looked down at the tie dangling around his neck. "The invitation said I had to wear a black tie. It didn't say how I had to wear it."
"Did it also say you had to wear athletic shoes?"
"No," he said with a smile. "That's my fashion statement."
Truth be told, Jeremy could show up in what he usually wore in his spare time‑‑crappy cargo shorts, a Ranger's T‑shirt and flip flops‑‑and they'd still let him in. If he wrote a big enough check, he could show up stark naked. But it wasn't like him to be in their faces about it. He always dressed well enough that they would admit him without question, but just shabby enough that they wished they didn't have to. Now that he was thirty-seven years old, Bernie thought maybe he ought to knock off the eccentricities and play it straight, but hell would probably freeze over first.
Over the years, the press had tried to dig up any dirt that might explain his quirkiness, but except for the basics, his background remained somewhat of a mystery. He grew up in Houston with his father. Mother unknown. Graduated from Texas Southwestern University. Short stint as a software engineer before starting his own company that eventually became Sybersense. Except for more current professional and civic activities, that was about it.
Bernie looked at the rich folks strolling into the hotel and sighed. "Must we do this?"
"Now, Bernie. This is a very special occasion. After all, how many times in this city does somebody have a benefit for such an outstanding cause and invite all the rich, pretty people?"
"About once a week."
"Exactly! Not nearly often enough. It's time for us to party."
"Us?"
"Okay. So it's time for me to party and you to watch for bad guys. Everyone should stick with what they do best."
Bernie glared at him. "It's a credible threat this time, you know."
"That also happens about once a week."
Bernie felt pretty certain this event would be the harmless experience it seemed to be on the surface, but there was no way for her or Jeremy to know that for sure. All Bernie knew was that every time she tried to figure out why he behaved the way he did, she realized how pointless that was and merely concentrated on keeping his body and soul together.
"Don't you ever get bored doing this?" she asked him.
"What? Going to charity events?"
"No. Going to charity events, picking up Paris Hilton wannabes, and having your way with them."
"Oh. Well, when you put it like that..." His mouth turned up in a cocky smile.
"Nope. Doesn't bore me at all."
"Good God, I hope you practice safe sex."
"Of course. You never know when some dread disease will rear its ugly head. Your concern is heartwarming."
"Concern, my ass. I just want you to do the world a favor and keep your genetic material to yourself."
"Not to worry," he said, patting his pants pocket. "I'm nothing if not prepared."
She shook her head. The man singlehandedly kept the latex industry afloat.
"Why go to all the trouble of attending these events?" she asked. "Why not just stay home and order out?"
"Order out?"
"Haul out your little black book and take your pick. Send Carlos to pick her up."
"But if I did that, I wouldn't have the opportunity to...what is it we're doing again?"
"Saving the polar bears."
"Oh, yeah. We have to think of the wildlife."
"Come on, Bridges. The only species you're interested in preserving is the Perpetual Bachelor. Unfortunately, the world's never going to run out of those."
"Now that's where you're wrong, Bernie. Polar bears are at the forefront of my consciousness nearly every minute of every day."
"And I'll believe that the moment polar bears grow blond hair and big breasts."
"If you object so much to this event, stay in the limo. I restocked the DVD collection. Terminator, Alien, Die Hard--all your old favorites."
"I'm paid to stick close to you."
"Not too close. You have a tendency to cramp my style."
"I have a tendency to keep you alive."
"Do you have to be so dramatic?"
Bernie narrowed her eyes. "Are you forgetting the London incident?"
"That was an accident."
"That was an out-of-control car that may not really have been out of control."
"We'll never know for sure, will we?"
"Fine. Die. See if I care."
"Of course you care. Would you be able to abuse another client the way you abuse me?"
"Abuse you?"
Jeremy leaned forward and tapped the Plexiglas window. "Carlos?"
The window came down. "Yes, sir?"
"Would you categorize Bernie's attitude toward me as abusive?"
"Oh, yes, sir. Absolutely."
"Thank you, Carlos."
As the window went back up, Jeremy turned to Bernie. "Now, there's a man who knows who signs his paychecks."
Bernie glared at Carlos. "Ass kisser."
"Tell me something, Bernie," Jeremy said.
"Yeah?"
"Exactly where do you hide your weapon when you're wearing a skirt?"
She met his gaze evenly. "That's none of your business."
Jeremy's gaze slid away from her eyes, slithered down to her breasts, fell to her thighs, then lazily made its way back up again. "So you're leaving it to my imagination?"
For a moment she felt the oddest twinge of awareness, as if she was one of those glowy, showy, magazine‑perfect women he was so fond of. Just the sound of his voice made her heart beat a little faster. And those gorgeous green eyes. Good God, it was no wonder women fell in his wake.
It wasn’t as if she didn’t know he was pushing her buttons. Jeremy thrived on knocking people off guard, and he wasn’t above using every weapon in his arsenal to do it, including sex. But that didn’t mean she was immune to him as a man, and when he looked at her with that unrelenting stare, she couldn’t help the hot, sexy thoughts that entered her mind.
In a few minutes, though, he'd be zeroing in on some dazzling daddy's girl or elegant divorcee, at which time he'd suddenly go Bernie-blind. In the end, she was just one more employee at his beck and call, like his housekeeper or his pool boy. And that was fine by her.
"Knock it off, Bridges. All you need to know is that I'm armed, I'm dangerous, and whether it's good for the world or not, I'll get you home in one piece."
"Actually, I doubt you'd even need a weapon," Bridges said. "Didn't I hear that you once killed a man with a Popsicle stick?"
"A Popsicle stick?" She made a scoffing noise. "That's ridiculous."
"So the rumor isn't true?"
"Of course not." She paused. "It was a Q‑Tip."
Jeremy just smiled, then turned his attention to a glittering Barbie doll standing near the front door of the hotel beside a planter full of periwinkles. Her mile‑long legs protruded from beneath the hem of a sheath of silvery fabric that clung to her body like Glad Wrap, and her headful of stunning blond hair glinted in the evening light.
The car ahead of them drove away, and Carlos pulled to the curb directly in front of the hotel. A uniformed man opened the door of the limo and gave Jeremy an deferential smile. "Good evening, sir." Then he turned to Bernie, and his smile faltered. She could read it in his eyes as clearly as if he'd shouted it: What's a woman like you doing with a man like him?
He cleared his throat. "Uh...good evening, miss."
Miss? Bernie cringed. Nobody had referred to her as "Miss" since...well, ever. And it was none of his damned business what she was doing with Jeremy, anyway.
The man dutifully held out his hand to her, as if she needed help getting out of a car. She ignored him and climbed out, quickly scanning the area for anything out of place. She and Jeremy headed for the front door of the hotel, and she got a good look at the blond for the first time.
Even though the woman wore enough mascara to sink a freighter, Bernie thought she recognized her. Two days ago, outside the gates of Jeremy's house, a woman had been standing at the curb, watching as they pulled through the gates. Bernie also remembered a woman loitering outside a restaurant yesterday where Bridges had met his chief financial officer for lunch. Bernie couldn't say with absolute certainty that it was the same woman, but her instincts rarely failed her.
Two sightings was a coincidence. Three was a pattern. And even though the woman was dressed to the nines, she didn't mesh with thesophisticated crowd here tonight. Bar hopping in the West Village seemed more appropriate. Hermakeup was tooextreme, her dress too flashy, her heels too high.When somebody didn't fit the profile of the occasion, it was always a reason for a heads-up.
As they passed her on their way into thehotel, the woman turned slowly and gave Bridges a suggestive smile. Not surprisingly, he matched her smile with one of his own. But Bernie sensed something about the woman's demeanor that went beyond the usual high society mating ritual she'd witnessed a hundred times before.
Then the woman shifted her gaze to Bernie.
Her smile vanished, replaced with an oddly irritated expression that made a chill snake between Bernie's shoulders. In spite of the fact that Bernie had arrived with Jeremy, there was no way on earth this woman considered her a romantic rival. Something else was going on, which meant Bernie needed to keep a close eye on her for the remainder of the evening.

Excerpted from Black Ties and Lullabies - Jane Graves. Reprinted from author’s website www.janegraves.com